What’s unusual for a park is a grave. Perhaps a mass grave as the place was a cemetery for quite some time.

Okay, it looks like a monument. It has two plaques on it (okay, one plaque and one engraving, well, two ‘cuz one’s on the other side).

It reads, “This ground was used as a cemetery by Trinity Parish during the years 1834-1898. It was made a public park by the city of New York in the year 1897-8. This monument stood in the cemetery and was removed to this spot in the year 1898.”

The engraving on the monument reads: “Here are interred the bodies of Eugene Underhill aged 20 years 7 months and 9 days and Frederick A. Ward aged 22 years 1 month and 16 days. Who lost their lives by the falling of a building while engaged in the discharge of their duty as FIRE MEN on the first day of July MDCCCXXXIV.” I believe that’s Roman numeral for 1834.

That would make the monument one of the first in the cemetery. I presume the “removed to this location” in the first plaque means somewhere on the block to this side of a relatively unused area, instead of perhaps in the middle of the ballfield.